𝒞ᴿ𝐲𝘣a̲𝘣𝗒﹐

ℳʏ ㅤㅤd͟a͟r͟l͟i͟n͟g͟ ㅤㅤgirl . . .

[aperitifs]

✶ ㅤㅤ𝒜PERITIFS ㅤㅤ! ㅤher laughter splashed me, the delirium passed, and everything sparkled     [ . . . ]    an independent, highly selective, & mutually - exclusive writing blog featuring original & canon(ish) characters.    as written by ʄleur, she/her & twenty5+.    minors dni. graphics by creeturefeeling. 𝒟ANCE CARD FILLED BY . . . ㅤ convexing, creeturefeeling, hedunnit, 0felia.

⁰¹ˑ carrd , ⁰²ˑ pinterest , ⁰³ˑ prompts , ⁰⁴ˑ aes sideblog , ⁰⁵ˑ usfw sideblog , ⁰⁶ˑ wanted , ⁰⁷ˑ graphics ᵇˡᵒᵍʳᵒˡˡˑ killerdame .

[pierppasolini]

Frankenstein (2025) // dir. Guillermo del Toro

[ohisms]

✱˚｡⋆ ↪ THE 𝐒TAGES OF 𝐈NTIMACY.   a collection of various action prompts centered around the varying stages of intimacy.  feel free to adjust as desired. heavily mature content, dni with this post if you are under 18, & DO NOT use these prompts for non-con scenarios.  )

SETTINGS.

[01.] finding privacy in a cramped dressing room.

[02.] cramming into the backseat of a car together.

[03.] slipping into the lonesome alleyway behind the bar for "time alone".

[04.] pulling them away from a party after hours of relentless teasing.

[05.] getting handsy under the table at a fancy dining establishment.

[06.] taking the long way home and pulling over on a dark stretch of road.

[07.] staying behind at the venue after everyone else has left.

[08.] the hotel room door barely clicks shut before hands are on them.

[09.] a tent in the middle of nowhere where no one can hear anything.

NEW TERRITORY.

[10.] finding yourself staring at their mouth and getting caught.

[11.] pulling back from a kiss to look at them, then immediately going back in.

[12.] memorizing the shape of them for the first time with your palms.

[13.] that exploratory first kiss, reserved and shy.

[14.] a gentle first kiss that morphs into intense want.

[15.] feeling the shape of their body through their clothes.

[16.] asking for permission to remove one of their garments.

[17.] finally succumbing to the thick tension & colliding feverishly.

[18.] fumbling with buttons or zippers because your hands won't stop shaking.

[19.] admitting out loud that you've been thinking about this for a while.

HEATING UP.

[20.] pulling them into your lap in the midst of a heated kiss.

[21.] discovering that they're wearing [ GEAR / LINGERIE ] under their clothes.

[22.] kissing away from their lips, down the length of their neck.

[23.] desperately grinding on them through layers of clothing.

[24.] dirty talking directly into their ear to turn them on even further.

[25.] pushing them onto a piece of furniture before straddling them.

[26.] lifting them onto the countertop while making out.

[27.] tugging their hair to expose more of their throat to your mouth.

[28.] the wrecked way they say your name for the first time.

[29.] fabric tearing because neither of you has the patience for buttons.

[30.] removing an obstacle of clothing with your teeth.

UNRAVELING.

[31.] biting down on their shoulder to muffle how good it feels.

[32.] the sound they make when you find the spot that undoes them.

[33.] begging without any trace of pride left and meaning every word.

[34.] their composure cracking for the first time, they finally stop holding back.

[35.] repeating "don't stop" like it's the only language left in their mouth.

[36.] leaving possessive marks in places only they'll see.

[37.] whispering "look at me" right before you take them apart.

[38.] trying to be quiet and failing, so they clamp a hand over your mouth.

[39.] flipping positions so fast neither of you remembers who initiated it.

[40.] their nails dragging down your back hard enough to sting later.

[41.] being told to open your mouth and doing it before the sentence is finished.

[42.] having your hands pinned above your head.

[43.] the desperate scramble to get closer when there is no closer to get.

COMING DOWN.

[44.] fingers lazily tracing the marks they just left on your skin.

[45.] pulling the blanket over both of you without being asked.

[46.] that silent, dazed smile when they catch your eye across the pillow.

[47.] the shaky laugh when neither of you can remember where your shirt is.

[48.] going to get water and bringing a glass back for them without asking.

[49.] lying chest to chest, feeling their heartbeat slow back down against yours.

[50.] the quiet "hey" that means something completely different now.

[51.] "come here" said softly — not urgently. just wanting them close again.

[52.] the reluctant moment of untangling.

[deficd]

He lets it land. Sits with it the way he sits with most things— unhurried, unbothered, like a man who has never once been in a situation he didn't think he could bleed his way out of. She's already moving and he's already not. Quaint, says Atlas. Shut your whore mouth, says Noet in return. Mary-Jane like mercury finding the lowest point in the room and Aposynthos like something nailed there, arms loose, expression doing the opposite of what it should be.

“I haven’t had to use my own hand in years.” Only a mythic man says such things just to watch what they do to people. He’s mildly disappointed, and still almost smiles. Almost— the corner of his mouth makes a consideration of it, a brief and minute shift, and then decides against the full commitment. Lazy amusement, nothing more. The kind that costs nothing to give.

"Hesitated, then. Is that right?" Tastes the word, finds it wanting. Watches her locate the purse with the quality of attention that has nothing to do with interest.

"Something got into you," and there's the edge, slipping out from under the boredom like a blade under a coat, "And you don't want to say what it was because saying it means I was right and you'd rather eat glass." The not-quite smile. The fossil of one. "Which, for the record, is a fantastic quality in someone I'm supposed to trust with the inside of my head."

Or, well, the caustic nature of his biology. Tilts his head, one degree. The most economical skepticism known to man. "So. What did you feel."

[aperitifs]

"then it sounds like you're gonna have an awful lot of fun tonight."

she carries a lot of shit with her. her purse jingles when she picks it up the way an old harridan's tools might have, all bone-rattle, the clatter of auspice and portent and thick worn silver bag chains. in another time, she might've actually been a hero's aid. in another life, aposynthos might have even been a real hero. mary jane tosses hair over her shoulder to look at him, a long ink curve over the paper of her back. the skin paled from where she's spent time sleeping through the daylight and burning under a neon sun. her dress is tight and thin enough that you can see her heartbeat below it, skimming like a fish in shallow water.

"baby, when did i say you could trust me? you trust your drain pipe? i do a job, same as it does." one that has, for the first time, failed. she has to look at him so as to avoid looking that fact in the eye. pain drifts in her body like an errant gaze. "but you don't take your rings off when you start playing around with it."

m.j.'s got a sense about people. that makes it sound like some extrasensory power, but really it just means she's made use of the ones she's already got. she's felt, seen, heard, fucked and been fucked over by enough of them that she understands, by virtue of lived experience, how things are. so how's it feel, he goes, and she gives him an up-down. not so much elevator as diagnostic. trying to sort out if aposynthos likes to ask that with his fingers stuck deep enough to mime around the answer.

"look, i don't come with a buyer's guarantee." she shifts weight from one hip to the other, chewing slowly on gum already flavourless. all she can taste in her mouth is the tang of blood she won't spit. mary jane sniffs, looks over her shoulder and back again. "jesus, i don't — it hurt, okay? normally it just — pulls right out. some are harder to do than others but it's like... weight, or something, i don't know." she does. she's the only one that could know. "yours was — buzzing. angry. like it was fighting back."

[aperitifs]

officially on my staycation ♡ like to be sent memes !

[deficd]

The fingertips at her collarbone are a small, devastating thing.

Vera felt them the way she felt most things— first in her chest, then everywhere else, a slow bloom of heat moving outward from the point of contact like ink dropped into still water. She had not expected to be touched. She had not expected, when she’d opened her mouth and let the confession out, that anything so soft would come back to meet it.

Was there an answer?

The question hangs between them in the dark and the warmth of it, and Vera lays very still beneath the weight of Vedia’s attention; the way an animal lies still in tall grass— not from fear, exactly, but from the understanding that stillness preserves something. That to move too quickly would be to break whatever spell has made this room, this bed, this moment possible.

An answer had come. That is the thing of it, the unbearable, luminous thing: something had come.

“Yes,” her own voice echoes back, strange and low, the way her voice sounds sometimes in the hours before dawn when she had not yet decided what kind of woman to be that day. Unguarded. A little raw at the edges, like something turned over to show its underside.

“Something answered. From the water, I think.”

[aperitifs]

her breath catches, sharp as a tear through the pink-stocking lining of a lung. vedia has so many dreams she can never talk about; all which come from the water ⸺ or end there.

"oh, well tell me,"

different kinds of animals, they are. vera stills, knowing a thing or two about self-preservation, while vedia moves — rises and lifts into the shape of a woolgathering target on the carved china-dish of her shins, no more conditioned to survival than a house pet lost to its nature. perhaps she ought to have learned to be frightened of vera the way the others were. perhaps she ought to know how to startle at all.

as it is, she's only always ever shared in the reverent part of fear when it comes to vera, an admiration and sticky-fondness. what vera is, she is too; harkonnen and sahin are well-matched names in their town, a collection of silverware set out on the same table, syllables long or lithe and sharing in the hooked point at the end. but what of what vera has? vedia's eyes flutter over the girl underneath her, wet and ardent. this secret — aren't they meant to share it as all else?

"tell me, vera," her little hand reaches for another. "what was it?"

[aperitifs]

ROWAN. tastes even better than it looks. @deficd

steam pours out thick from the array of pots on the stovetop, fogging up the windows the way all love-acts done in an enclosed space do.

"aw — you really mean that, cher? no teasin'?"

not much difference between feeding someone and making love to them, lena's found, which is half the reason she started cooking to begin with. she used to just lead them all upstairs at the end of the night and lay 'em down real nice, but now she picks out where their hunger sits, in their gut or somewhere lower, and fills it. usually it isn't all that hard to figure out who would prefer what. people are awful easy to know once you've seen the ends of them. some, the ones she likes best or the ones she feels guiltiest over — like rowan twice over — she might give both.

"you know, most'a the boys that come through here, they got eyes bigger than their stomach." she places another silver plate in front of him, this one teeming with crawfish. the table creaks under it the way the house creaks under them, a gurgle. the sound of a stretching stomach. "they see me lay out dinner and heap their plates right up, and then there's this whole waste of food when they're through, all half-picked over ⸺ but i could tell right away that weren't the case with you, honey."

lena folds her skirt politely as she sits — the material soft but worn, growing thin. she's not much one for silk; it don't take water right. her preference is cotton, linens, things that breath. still, even not-silk, it folds between her thighs the way a spiderweb might.

"you," her head tilts as though she might see more of him from a new angle, chin resting in a cupped hand, but it's a ruse. this one's straightforward and best seen the same way. got emotions like primary colours, she can tell: undiluted, unmixed. when he cries, it's salty-blue. when he bleeds, later, it'll be the reddest of red. it's part of why she likes him, really. why she's feeding him now and still thinking of taking him upstairs later. the poets say mermaids can't cry, but that's not the truth. not really. they are simply covetous in nature, and uncomplicated tears are something they ain't ever gonna have. on their cheeks, it comes out all the wrong colours — lena ain't ever gonna know sorrow without a little bit of rage mixed in.

"you know just about the size of your want," she speaks so sweet. sugar will make meat fall off the bone. "don't you?"

[aperitifs]

sibella daughter of dracula the undead woman that you ARE

[mcflymemes]

"STOP PUTTING YOURSELF INTO DANGER!" PROMPTS *  assorted dialogue for expressing your fear that the person you care about might get themselves hurt if they keep acting like this, adjust as necessary

i thought i told you to stay back.

i love you too much to let you get hurt like this.

this affects me, too, you know.

every time you leave, i sit up all night waiting, praying you'll come back alive.

you keep pulling stunts like this and something bad will happen.

do you have a death wish or something?

this isn't fair to me.

i deserve better than this.

i didn't get any sleep last night because i was so worried about you.

you promised me you'd stop going out at night.

i don't like hearing this.

you've been risking your life, and for what? so you can feel like a goddamn hero?

i said i would handle it.

what the fuck are you doing here?

you told me you'd stay put.

so much for laying low.

you remember how bad it was last time.

seems like you haven't learned anything.

i believe you promised me you'd lay low.

i can't keep doing this.

don't give me that look.

we'll discuss this later.

this stops now.

i'm tired of picking up the pieces once you've left.

you keep throwing yourself into danger.

you don't give a shit about yourself, do you?

i'm sitting here, worried out of my mind, while you're out doing god knows what.

that was really stupid of you, and you know it.

i thought you knew better than this.

what's your excuse this time?

you do realize what this does to me, right? seeing you get hurt like this? you know it hurts me, too?

you really don't give a shit how this affects me, huh.

that was the dumbest possible thing you could have done.

i need you to stop throwing yourself into harm's way.

that was completely unnecessary.

they had it handled.

you didn't need to step in like that.

why do you think you're invincible?

the last time you pulled a stunt like this, it nearly got you killed.

i can't just sit here and watch you get hurt.

what are you trying to prove?

you just like fucking with my heart, don't you.

this shit hurts me, too, you know.

you're not the only one affected by this shit.

you've got a lot of people counting on you to come home every night.

what happens if you don't come back?

you think we can just carry on without you?

you think i can handle things if you end up dead?

i'm not sticking around to watch you get hurt.

you're not even slick.

you think you're invincible, don't you.

quit pretending you've got everything under control.

let someone else do it for a change.

you can't keep putting yourself through shit like this and expect me to just sit back and watch.

i'm done with this.

next time you do this, i'm not coming back.

promise me this is the end.

look me in the eyes and tell me you'll stop doing this.

let the authorities deal with it.

you're making a big mistake.

is it worth dying for?

i've dealt with enough pain over the years.

[calisverse]

𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐌 𝐌𝐂𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋 as 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐋𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐍 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐘 as 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀

Caligula (1979), Ultimate Cut Reconstruction (2024).

"Caligula cared for nobody in the world but himself and Drusilla. Only himself actually, because Drusilla was an extension of himself, the female half of him, the other side of his coin. They even looked alike, with their golden hair and their wide blue eyes." Gore Vidal, screenwriter of Caligula.

[leneemusing]

FOR THE “YOU CAN KILL ME BUT DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH THEM” DYNAMICS 

❝  i only want you.  ❞

❝  i don’t need anyone else.  i just…you.  you’re all i need.  ❞

❝  listen,  i’ve lost a lot of people in my life.  i learned how to deal with it but…you’re different.  i can’t take it if it’s you.  ❞

❝  i think about anything happening to you and i— i just.  i fucking lose it.  ❞

❝  you don’t understand.  i need you safe.  not because i don’t think you can handle yourself but because i can’t focus on anything else if there’s even the smallest possibility you’re in danger.  ❞

❝  no one is ever gonna get near you again,  you hear me?  ❞

❝  i won’t let you get hurt.  i promise.  and i don’t make empty promises.  ❞

❝  turn around.  you don’t need to see this part.  ❞

❝  just give the word and i’ll kill every one of them.  ❞

❝  you can’t get all worked up every time something happens to me.  that’s just life.  you’re not always gonna be able to protect me from it.  ❞

❝  no one else understands me.  but you do.  you always do.  ❞

❝  i don’t think i’m the best person for you,  i don’t.  but i do know i’m the one that can keep you safe  ❞

❝  hey—  look at me.  it’s over.  it’s done.  we’re okay.  ❞

❝  who the fuck made you cry i’ll fucking rip their head off.  ❞ 

❝  i know you’ve always got my back.  ❞

❝  please,  let me take care of you this time.  you’re always protecting me but it tears me up inside every time you get hurt because of it.  ❞

❝  can you make everyone else just go away?  i know they mean well but i just want to be alone—  alone with you i mean.  ❞

❝  i know when you’re here,  the real monsters can’t touch me.  ❞

❝   oh,  i am one of the monsters.  but that just means i can keep all the other monsters from ever hurting you again. ❞ 

❝  if you’re gonna keep risking your life for me than you’re also gonna let me patch you up without a single complaint.  ❞

❝  we keep each other safe.  it’s my turn to protect you.  ❞

❝  i killed them for you.  i know you could’ve done it yourself,  but you shouldn’t have to.  ❞

❝   i love you because i know how capable you are.  and i show that love by making sure you don’t have to be the one to always do the hard things.  ❞

❝   i’m gonna make them regret ever even thinking about laying a hand on you.  ❞

❝  tell me what you want me to do.  i’ll do it.  whatever you want.  ❞

❝  i love you just like this.  i love you when you touch me gently like no one else ever has.  and i love you when your hands are bloody and your knuckles are bruised. ❞

❝  please,  just let me protect you.  ❞

❝  are you hurt?  did they hurt you?  ❞

❝  wait,  stop you’re bleeding.  ❞

❝  did you just wince?  where are you hurt?  ❞

❝  i need you in my life.  i’m not used to that—  needing people.  but i do need you.  ❞

❝  you make me feel things i’m not used to feeling.  ❞

❝  why do you let me close when you’re always driving everyone else away?  ❞

❝   you’re mine.  and i protect what’s mine.  ❞

❝  thank you for always being here for me.  ❞

❝  you see things in me that i didn’t even know where there.  ❞

❝  that’s enough.  let’s go home.  ❞

❝  i’m okay now.  i’m safe.  you don’t have to be angry anymore.  ❞

❝  please stop—  this is scaring me. ❞

❝  you don’t have to do this for me.  ❞

❝   hey stop— stop!  look at me.  they’re dead now.  you can stop.  ❞

❝  i have to make an example outta them so no one else tries to hurt you again.  ❞

❝  killing for you is easy.  it’s right.  it feels natural.  ❞

❝  let me do this for you.  ❞

SCENARIOS

[ ONE ]  for sender to take a bullet for receiver. 

[ TWO ]  for receiver to take a bullet for sender. 

[ THREE ]  for sender to protect receiver and then carry them to safety. 

[ FOUR ]  for receiver to protect sender and then carry them to safety. 

[ FIVE ]  for sender to witness receiver get hurt which sends them into a violent rage.

[ SIX ]  for receiver to witness sender get hurt which sends them into a violent rage. 

[ SEVEN ]  for sender to be hurt trying to protect receiver which makes them bloodthirsty for revenge.

[ EIGHT ]   for receiver to be hurt trying to protect sender which makes them bloodthirsty for revenge.

[ NINE ]  for sender to have violently protected receiver,  so receiver kisses them to calm them down. 

[ TEN ]  for receiver to have violently protected sender,  so sender kisses them to calm them down. 

[ ELEVEN ]  for sender to carefully approach receiver in the aftermath,  gently touching them to try and bring them back to themselves. 

[ TWELVE ]  for receiver to carefully approach sender in the aftermath,  gently touching them to try and bring them back to themselves. 

[ THIRTEEN ]  sender was kidnapped,  receiver shows up to save them.  

[ FOURTEEN ]  receiver was kidnapped,  sender shows up to save them.  

[ FIFTEEN ]  sender executes a third party in front of receiver because that person hurt them. 

[ SIXTEEN ]  receiver executes a third party in front of sender because that person hurt them. 

[ SEVENTEEN ]  sender thinks they’re alone but receiver comes out of nowhere to rescue them from someone who intends to do harm/making them uncomfortable. 

[ EIGHTEEN ]   receiver thinks they’re alone but sender comes out of nowhere to rescue them from someone who intends to do harm/making them uncomfortable. 

[ NINETEEN ]  sender has been devastated by something.  receiver holds them until they calm down so they don’t do anything drastic. 

[ TWENTY ]  receiver has been devastated by something.  sender holds them until they calm down so they don’t do anything drastic. 

[ TWENTY-ONE ]  sender thought receiver died so they set out to get revenge.  receiver shows up in time to stand in front of them before they go too far.  

[ TWENTY-TWO ]  receiver thought sender died so they set out to get revenge.  sender shows up in time to stand in front of them before they go too far. 

[ TWENTY-THREE ]  sender is in a vengeful rage because of something that happened to receiver.  receiver gently approaches to calm them down saying this isn’t what they want. 

[ TWENTY-FOUR ]  receiver is in a vengeful rage because of something that happened to sender.  sender gently approaches to calm them down saying this isn’t what they want. 

[ TWENTY-FIVE ]  for sender to have receiver stand by somewhere safe where they can watch sender kill on their behalf. 

[ TWENTY-SIX ]  for receiver to have sender stand by somewhere safe where they can watch receiver kill on their behalf. 

[aperitifs]

VERA. I SOUGHT COMPANY. I SOUGHT... TENDERNESS, AND I CALLED OUT. @deficd,

WHAT BIG EYES YOU HAVE.

wide like saucers, wide like dinner plates, circular and white as something unto which cravings and red, bleeding meats are piled. even before vedia has asked anything at all, she has asked vera for more. her eyes, pale and round as wedding china, do it for her.

"and⸺" they have such similar features. over large eyes, sharp chin. naiadic. anyone who might observe the two in their pair might think they are observing an image and its mirror, a girl and her double. that vera's skin and hair is fairer not because of biology or inheritance but a matter of circumstance, her face turned to the light, vedia cast as darker only for the way she's blanketed by the other's shadow.

and how very warm it is to lay there, under it.

her fingertips touch absently, fervently, to vera's collarbone. it's an unthinking impulse, automatic — as though she might be able to touch the waiting truth that is caught there. curiousity is a tangible thing for vedia. she has always sought to put her hands on everything she desires.

WHAT BIG TEETH YOU HAVE. hunger, hunger, hunger, and the sweet incisors that grow from it.

"⸺was there an answer?"

[aperitifs]

FEYD. YOU CHOKED. @deficd,

THE BLOOD UNDER HER NOSE SWAYS THE WAY A PEARL NECKLACE DOES. the philtrum only another collarbone, a miniaturized and indented pit, little more than a frame for something tear-shaped.

"i hesitated," her heart throbs, an aggressive, slashing beat. the obnoxious red of a correcting pen: i'm still fucking alive, aren't i?

she straightens up and swipes with the back of her hand, taking the blood-pearl on her wrist. now it's a bracelet. fitting enough — mary jane's never owned a piece of jewelry she didn't come by dishonestly. never worn something that wasn't repurposed from its original intent. dedication unnerves her; she prefers back-alley function. perverted design is more comfortable. more like her.

her bare knees have the imprint of her hands on them, the skin pinked from pressure, from the effort of taking her whole body weight. by contrast aposynthos, when she looks at him — and she only just barely does, the browse of her eyes rolling, roving, the way she always is, smooth and perpetually seeking an exit — is still white all over. cold. unflushed by effort or pain. it should look heroic, but there's a lack of heartiness that mary jane associates with that word. instead, he looks foreign. irreconcilable to her own fallible nature. he looks like he'd call atlas a pussy for struggling with his shoulder press.

"if i'd choked," she gives him a berth in passing, catlike, to find her discarded purse. the way she walks — all hips, slippery, slinking despite her pain — is feline too. "your dick'd be out and in your hand already."

[aperitifs]

the bluff was deeply mediocre but it did include a man with a woman's name tattooed on his ribs and that same woman having stabbed him through that very spot..... so like wanted plot. ig.

[ashesofprometheus]

“ Are you scared? ” from elizabeth !

"I fear many things" he begins after a brief pause to consider her words and to choose his own carefully. "Fear is not a stranger to me, it follows like a shadow even in the darkest of places. This world fears me, and I fear it. I think we were never meant to be at ease with one another."

He sees it in the eyes of everyone who crosses his path. Fear, quickly followed by disgust and revulsion.

Although perhaps not everyone. He has never seen it reflected in the eyes of Elizabeth. She has only ever looked upon him with kindness and compassion, and maybe with curiosity.

Despite this he still curls his great frame in on itself, to make himself less. Hunched, almost hiding behind long unkempt dark auburn, and a single shock of white hair.

[aperitifs]

SHE WANTS TO ASK: on what whetstone have you sharpened your voice? upon what tool, what round, hard edge of the world, had this language been honed and shaped into the fluency that she hears now?

it is not that he speaks at all ⸺ elizabeth had, after all, only ever addressed him as He in her diaries. He, the first letter determinedly upright, overlarge. written nameless as once he was, but with the inflection of a greater being. He looms larger than any man ⸺ He is pure, full of wonder ⸺ He who persists in my heart, though his presence be far from me ⸺ He, He ⸺ to read her journalings, penned with supreme affection and awe, would be to assume she speaks of God. ADAM'S INTELLIGENCE, HIS CAPACITY, THE CAPABILITY OF SELF ⸺ such has never been questioned. it is only the means that she wonders after. the chronicle. as if the months of separation might be erased, made easier, if only she could picture where he had been.

she leans forward in her chair, heart creasing as she does. gently, a hand reaches out ⸺ tucking that long, hanging hair behind his ear. why do you hide, darling soul?

"not the world," this she denies, voice sweet like birdsong. "only some within it. you must forgive man his flaws, adam. we are imperfect, poorly made." elizabeth's head cants, falling lower, seeking to catch the downturn of his gaze. perhaps to earn it, or perhaps only out of a compulsion she cannot resist, the hand lingers, tracing the curve of his temple. "even poorer kept. full of anger and envy ⸺" she trails off, the skin of her voice shedding until it is only a warm, shapeless hum. "if only we might be more like you."

[aperitifs]

ÁNGEL. UNLESS I'M VERY MUCH MISTAKEN, YOU'RE WEARING YESTERDAY'S CLOTHES. @convexing,

ANDI'S STOMACH IS STILL SNOWED-IN ⸺ her appetite housebound, locked inside under the heavy powder which started in a bathroom at tunnel last night and continuing until a couple hours ago in a west side apartment ⸺ but she's working her way admirably through a bagel all the same. she is, admittedly, chewing the same way she does the elliptical in the morning: determinedly, at a steady pace. as a means to an end. IT TASTES LIKE SHIT, BUT SHIT'S NECESSARY. food will help with the comedown and keep her awake through the staff meeting.

she interrupts her grind long enough to reply to ángel, removing the bagel from her mouth but ensuring she doesn't do him the service of looking up from her copy of people.

"yeah, and you’ve got the same dumbass fucking look on your face that you had last night, and every night before that—"

she's studying carolyn bessette's sheath when a finger crooks over the top of the magazine and lowers it. andi has to look up to realize he's making an attempt at proofing his theory; immediately her hand closes, crumpling the paper into a roll, and swats at him. god knows what fucking creature that finger was curled inside last night after he left the club. she reopens the pages and sinks back in her chair, glowering.

"⸺you see me going on about it?"

[billy-crudup]

LOVE STORY 1.04 | I Love You